1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the filed of social networking and more particularly to the management of privacy settings for contacts in a social networking.
2. Description of the Related Art
A social network refers to a social structure of nodes each associated with a different person or organization. The interconnections of each node reflect direct relationships between the respective people and organizations such that the directness of a relationship between two persons or organizations associated with respective nodes can be summarized by the path of interconnections between the respective nodes. In this way, any one individual in a social network can evaluate the number and quality of social relationships with others in the network, those relationships ranging from close familial bonds to casual acquaintances.
The advent of the global Internet has changed the way in which social networks can be viewed. Originally, a mere visual tool describing a social phenomenon, computerized social networks facilitate the recognition and expansion of social networks amongst interacting users across the globe. Whereas geographic boundaries previously limited the extent and quality of a given social network, the global Internet enables limitless expansion of the social network based upon a vast set of aware collaborators coupled by the fabric of computer communications.
Commercial computerized social networks have become wildly popular in recent years—especially amongst the younger demographic. Examples include the MySpace™ computer socialized network maintained by MySpace, Inc. of Los Angeles, Calif., LinkedIn™ computerized business network maintained by LinkedIn Corporation of Palo Alto, Calif., and the Facebook™ computerized social network maintained by Facebook of Palo Alto, Calif. Commercial computerized social networks represent social networking services connecting users according to different types of interests in an aggregated view--generally a Web site hosting user contributed content through imagery and commentary.
Commercial computerized social networks allow users to create individual profiles. Each profile can include social media including imagery such as photographs of the user and things relevant to the user. Each profile further can include textual materials such as lifestyle information, or general writings. Notably, users can establish networks of connection or “friends”. Friends can be specified manually by a given user and often represent the individuals or organizations known personally by the given user. Each of the friends can be presented in the Web site so as to allow linking to a corresponding profile for the friend. In this way, an end user literally can navigate shared connections of connections in the social network for a given user.
Currently, social networking applications allow users to create privacy settings that indicate the amount of information that different individuals are privy to access. Privacy settings can be compared to security settings in that security settings block access to information excepting for authorized users, while privacy settings limit the degree to which information can be shared with others and can range from no information to all information depending upon a class of a user seeking access to the information. Privacy settings, in this regard, can be established for access to photographs, postings, messages, or profile information so that only “friends” or possibly “friends of friends” can view the information, as an example. Thus, as it is well-understood in the art, security is a process that can support and enforce privacy, and therefore, privacy is an outcome of an application of security. It follows then, that a privacy setting is a desired consequence and security measures can be implemented to achieve a privacy setting.
At present, when a user adds a new social connection to the social network of the user, the user must manually select privacy settings for application for the new social connection, or the user must manually assign the new social connection to one of a general set of groups of different privacy levels. Alternatively, the user can manually edit the privacy settings at a later time. This forced effort usually results in new social connections being assigned default privacy levels, which may inadvertently expose the confidential information of the user, or may the new social connection being undesirably constrained defeating the ability of the user to effectively network with new contacts.